Matthew Stuart: Bray Park drug lord jailed for huge illicit haul

Bullying over childhood obesity led a Moreton Bay carpenter to slide into a ‘full-blown’ ice-addiction, a court has heard.

A Moreton region man was discovered in possession of commercial quantities of methamphetamine and MDMA, $83,000 cash, and a pump-action shotgun with ammo, and an encapsulation machine, a court has heard.

Bray Park man Matthew Joseph Stuart, 29, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday to eight drug-related offences.

The court heard all offences stemmed from a search warrant executed on March 24 last year.

At Stuart’s address, police uncovered 66g pure MDMA in 96g of substance, 26.3g pure meth in 33.8g of substance, 182g of cannabis, $83,100 cash, a pump-action shotgun with ammunition, multiple mobile phones, an encapsulation machine, and a variety of paraphernalia including gel capsules, clipseal bags and digital scales.

Bray Park carpenter Matthew Joseph Stuart, 29. Picture: Facebook

The court heard he was in the grips of a “full-blown” meth addiction at the time of his offending, using up to 7g a day.

Defence counsel Angus Edwards told the court Stuart’s slide into addiction began when he was prescribed amphetamine-based weight-loss medication Duromine to treat his obesity, which saw him leave school in Year 10.

“(He is a) kind, compassionate, loyal, family-oriented man whose life has unfortunately been marred by drug use and addiction arising from some pretty serious schoolyard bullying to do with his weight,” Mr Edwards said, which was about 130kg when he left school.

However, the court heard Stuart had completely rehabilitated himself from drugs, coinciding with a successful lap band surgery which had slimmed him down to 100kg from a height of 160kg.

Stuart, who had been out in the community on bail since his offending, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by Justice Peter Davis, suspended for four years after serving nine months in custody.